Right now Australian households are in a cost-of-living crisis. Basically it means that the cost of everyday essentials is rising much faster than the average household income. According to Expatisan, a collaborative cost-of-living database, Australia is the ninth most expensive country to live in out of 66. The lucky country isn’t feeling so lucky for a lot of people right now and the pain that people are feeling is a direct result of decisions governments have made over many years.
When all the kids were at home I used to have to shop for seven people a week. It was a two-trolley shop. Just a decade ago I was spending around $500 per week. I would meal plan every meal, so there was no waste. I accounted for dinners, breakfasts, and school lunches so there were no surprises. I was super efficient and frugal. When I googled how much larger Australian families are spending now, the most recent data told me around $232 per week. I have no idea how they sourced that data, or if they’ve been to a supermarket recently, but that’s impossible. With four of us at home now, we can’t get anywhere near that kind of economy. I’d guess that it costs in excess of $700 per week to feed a large family right now. Possibly more.
Almost everyone is affected by a cost-of-living crisis, and of course those who were already struggling are doing it even tougher. Many people I have met while volunteering at community food kitchens are living on one meal a day. Mums, dads, grandmas, grandpas, kids. All lining up for a free feed a few times a week so they can stretch their budget and pay their rent or mortgage. They are living week-to-week with no ability to cope with life’s little surprises, like car repairs or dental bills.
And if you were just hanging on, now you are possibly facing homelessness. Or you are homeless. Living in your car, or couch surfing, or camping, or sleeping rough. It’s impossible right now to get a real number for those who are homeless and at risk of homelessness, but one thing is for sure, the cost-of-living crisis has created the churn.
Right now, older adults are the fastest-growing age group of people experiencing homelessness. With income insecurity and rising interest rates, very often older people are having to survive on one, rather than two incomes. Often that income, being a pension or some sort of government support, is clearly not enough.
But don’t worry. The super rich continue to get super rich. The wealthiest 200 people have grown their fortunes by 11%. Gina Rinehart has topped the rich list for the fifth consecutive year and managed to pull an extra $3.2 billion while the rest of the country lines up for bread and soup. Mining giants, corporations and big banks pocketed $98 billion in ‘crisis’ profits (Covid, war in Ukraine). BHP benefited the most of any Australian company, accumulating more than $37 billion in crisis profits in 2022 and 2023.
Oxfam’s CEO has said, ‘It doesn’t make sense to us that Australia would continue to be very low taxing in the face of these very high, excess profits that are being posted by a limited number of companies and ultimately to the benefit of a very small number of individuals.’ Yep. What they said. We could change the lives of millions in this country with a simple redistribution of wealth.
The money is in the system. It’s not broken. It’s working as designed. It’s just leaving the hands of the many and going to the few.
Right here in Byron, The Liberation Larder turn 45,000 kilos of perfectly good ‘rescued’ food that would have turned into landfill into nearly 28,000 delicious meals every year. Their numbers have gone up 30% in the last financial year. That’s a massive jump. They’re making the opposite of profits. Not-for-profits and charities are at the bottom, picking up the pieces of the real cost of mega profits. People’s lives.
The Liberation Larder needs your help. Their costs (for the food they have to buy like rice, oil and pasta) have gone up around $800 per month. If you can help by sponsoring a purchase, or volunteer in their fabulous food and human rescuing kitchen – go to liberationlarder.org
And while we’re busy serving up meals at a food kitchen, maybe Gina and her billionaire mates can start a money kitchen – and start redistributing the money that’s been sucked from our planet, back into our pockets.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
